Month: November 2011

The Year’s Notable Cookbooks William P. O’Donnell/The New York Times (“Rustica” and “The Foods of Spain”), Jake Guevara/The New York Times (“Seoultown Kitchen” and “Truly Mexican”), and Alessandra Montalto/The New York Times (“Cooking in the Moment”) By JULIA MOSKIN, FLORENCE FABRICANT, PETE WELLS and NICK FOX Published: November 29, 2011 It’s hard to do justice … Continue reading “Rice & Curry” honored in New York Times 2011 List Of Notable Cookbooks

I didn’t title my cookbook Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking for nothing. The best Sri Lankan food your are likely to get in country or abroad, for that matter, is not in a restaurant, but rather at someone’s home. Don’t get me wrong: I love to eat out when I’m traveling and … Continue reading Home Cookin’

Sometimes these blog posts don’t work out as planned. I had planned, for example, to do a post on string hoppers, the rice noodle “nests” popular in Sri Lanka for breakfast and dinner. Problem is, I wanted to buck tradition, or conditioning, or whatever you want to call it, and have string hoppers for lunch. … Continue reading Hotel De New Pilawoos

Colombo has no shortage of Chinese restaurants, most of which serve food with its own particular character, shaped, of course, by local tastes (meaning, it’s much spicier than the run of the mill storefront Chinese in New York or any western city for that matter). It’s also probably nothing like the ‘authentic’ Chinese food you … Continue reading Off The Eaten Path: Juchunyuan Restaurant In Colombo

Lunch being the main meal in Lanka, I noticed that there’s a ton of places to get a quick, midday rice and curry—from street side stands and trucks that sell 100 rupee rice packets to the informal, sit-down restaurants that cater to the office crowd. While most rice packets are perfectly fine, they have usually … Continue reading Rice & Curry In A Hurry: Gamay Kade (at Senkada/Salaka)

Although I did a much earlier post about the “Battle of Lampreis” in Sri Lanka, I realized today after lunch that there really is no competition: The lampreis at The Dutch Burgher Union is hands down THE BEST and only lampreis worth eating. For all you novices out there, here’s a little refresher course: Lampreis … Continue reading Lampreis To Go @ The Dutch Burgher Union